After four days in Andalusia, we took the AVE to Madrid. Our primary focus was to meet with former missionaries – more on that later – but we also rented a car and drove north to visit Medina del Campo, Tordesillas, Simancas, and Valladolid, cities which were important stops on our “Camino de Colon.”

Medina del Campo: the room and the building where Queen Isabella died. “My hand falls to my side for sorrow,” wrote Peter Martyr. “The world has lost its noblest ornament.” Columbus had certainly lost his noblest friend.The Treaty House in Tordesillas. Following Columbus’s First Voyage, Spain and Portugal negotiated and signed the Treaty of Tordesillas in this building, dividing the new world between the two Iberian kingdoms.The national archives in Simancas housed many documents related to Columbus and his voyages.Town Hall on the Plaza Mayor in Valladolid. Columbus died in 1506 in a small house or monastery in Valladolid, and was interred in the monastery which stood on this plaza.